Fishing in a Pool of Perps

Dead Tease [by] Victoria Houston

[Blue Ash, OH] Tyrus Books [2012]

978-1-4405-3312-9; $24.95

Dead Tease is the 12^th book in a great series by Victoria Houston, which you may not have heard of, until now.  Her mysteries take place in the small Wisconsin town of Loon Lake, and are all named for fishing lures.  The series “stars” are Doc, Dr. Paul Osborne, a retired dentist and the forensic odontologist who helps the police department as Assistant Coroner, in the absence of the perpetually drunk Coroner, brother-in-law of the mayor, and Lew, Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris.  Both are dedicated fisher folk, and an “item” about town.

The very attractive 26-year-old graphics designer at the new clinic, Jen Williams, is knifed on the heart when she stops at her mailbox on her way home from work.  She is one of three women intimately familiar with John McNeill, the CEO of the clinic.  The other two women are his wife, Leigh, who believes someone is stalking her, and the strikingly lovely physician, Dr. Cynthia Daniels.  The suspicion falls about equally on the two.

Dr. Daniels has a definitely nasty side, which she show to Lew and Doc when she is questioned – she has very little nice to say about any of her colleagues, especially the dead designer.  Since she grew up in town, where Doc has lived all of his life, he remembers her as a teen – not a happy memory, which is confirmed by his grown daughter, who had been a victim of Cynthia when in school.  Her mother is also a “piece of work” in the same vein.

A forensics tech comes from the State Lab in Wausau to take charge of things, and he asks for Ray Pradt, a fishing guide who wears a dead trout on his head, but is an amazing tracker, to help him.  They find clues, but nothing substantial enough to make an arrest.  Doc, who can’t tell when his granddaughter is withholding information, has a pretty good sense of when the adults in the case are lying – and they’re all lying.

Meanwhile, Lew gets a phone call that there has been a break-in at the McNeill house.  Broken glass yields a blood sample, and there is a nice, clear footprint on the top of the basement washer, right under the broken window.  Someone has been in their house – maybe Leigh McNeill isn’t crazy after all.  Ray puts up the cameras he uses in the fall to track deer, and they ultimately produce images of a person-sized silhouette lurking outside the house.  There is a stalker at the house!

Then the mayor, an expert in nepotism (see above), suggests strongly to Lew that she should retire, since he wants his son to take over the police department.  Lew hopes that a speedy and successful end to this investigation will save her job.

The team has put in long hours, and they are all exhausted.  But Ray, ever looking for another scheme to make money, wants them to try fishing from a kayak.  The guy who has recruited Ray for this work suggests a nearby river, which Ray has never tried – nor have the others, because they fish the lake, rather than the rivers.  It ends up being too much for these beginning kayakers, who are almost swept away, but gives them the opening they need to break the case.

It’s always a treat to spend time with Doc and Lew at Loon Lake.  A most readable and enjoyable cozy police procedural in a long line, which this reviewer hopes gets longer and longer.  I wonder how many lure names there are…

Highly recommended. ~ lss-r

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Book borrowed from my public library.